About:

• The online order and delivery mechanism of food supply has created a physical disconnect between the consumer and the food maker.
  
  
• Hence, the onus of ensuring the quality of food and the hygienic condition under which food is prepared, has shifted to the intermediate food delivery mechanism
  
  
• Keeping this in mind, Punjab Health Minister has issued a direction in this regard, saying that all the online order and supply companies should display the hygiene rating of all the food business operators registered or affiliated with them.
  
  

About: 

• Puerto Williams is the main settlement, port and naval base on Navarino Island in Chile. It faces the Beagle Channel. 
  
  
• Puerto Williams, a growing hamlet on the remote southern tip of the South American continent, has been upgraded to the category of “city” by Chilean authorities, making it the world’s southernmost city. 
  
  
• Puerto Williams has nudged out Ushuaia, a neighbor in Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego, for the title. 
  
  

About: 

• Released by: Save the Children, an NGO working for the education and protection of child rights. 
  
  
• Key highlights of the report: 
  • In 2000, an estimated 970 million children were robbed of their childhood due to ill-health, child labour, early pregnancy and violent death. That number has reduced to 690 million today. 
    
    
  • Globally, there has been progress on every End of Childhood Index indicator but one – children suffering due to conflict. 
    
    
  • A comparison of End of Childhood Index scores finds the overall situation for children has improved in 173 of 176 countries since 2000. 
    
    
  • But, the number of children living in war zones or forced to flee their homes due to conflict has gone up since 2000. There are 30.5 million more forcibly displaced people now than there were in 2000, an 80% increase. 
    
    
  
  
  

About:

• Reform of the Security Council has been a subject of interest for many Member States especially since the end of the Cold War, by which point global geopolitical realities had clearly shifted since 1945.
  
  
• In 2007, UN Member States decided to move discussions to an Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) process.
  
  
• Issues under discussion: According to a decision taken in 2008, the five key issues under consideration in these negotiations are –
  • Categories of membership to the Security Council (i.e. permanent, non-permanent, or a third option),
    
    
  • The question of the veto,
    
    
  • Regional representation,
    
    
  • Size of an enlarged council and working methods, and
    
    
  • The relationship between the Council and the General Assembly.
    
    
  
  
  

List of New CMs:

• YS Jagan Mohan Reddy (of YSR Congress party) has taken oath as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
  
  
• Pema Khandu (of Bharatiya Janata Party) has taken oath as Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh.
  
  
• Naveen Patnaik (of Biju Janata Dal) has taken oath as Chief Minister of Odisha. 
  
  
• Prem Singh Tamang (of Sikkim Krantikari Morcha) has taken oath as Chief Minister of Sikkim. 
  
  

About:

• Background: The Security Council can take action to maintain or restore international peace and security under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.
  
  
• Types:
  • Security Council Sanctions measures, under Article 41, encompass a broad range of enforcement options that do not involve the use of armed force.
    
    
  • These range from comprehensive economic and trade sanctions to more targeted measures such as arms embargoes, travel bans, and financial or commodity restrictions.
    
    
  
  
  
• Objective: The Security Council has applied sanctions to support peaceful transitions, deter non-constitutional changes, constrain terrorism, protect human rights and promote non-proliferation.
  
  

UN Security Council's Sanctions Committees:

• Article 29 of the United Nations Charter sets out that the Security Council may establish subsidiary bodies (committees or working groups) as needed for the performance of its functions.
  
  
• One of them is Sanctions Committees which comprises of the 15 members of the Council whose mandate is to impose sanctions.
  
  

About:

• Date of observance: May 29.
  
  
• Why may 29: The first UN peacekeeping mission was established on 29th May 1948, when the Security Council authorized the deployment of a small number of UN military observers to the Middle East.
  
  
• Objective of the day: To pay tribute to the invaluable contribution by the uniformed and civilian personnel and to honour more than 3,800 peacekeepers who have lost their lives while rendering peacekeeping services.
  
  
• 2019 Theme: This year’s campaign theme for the Day is “Protecting Civilians, Protecting Peace”, chosen to mark the 20th anniversary of the first time that the Security Council explicitly mandated a peacekeeping mission to protect civilians (UNAMSIL in Sierra Leone from 1999 until 2005).
  
  

About:

• President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of Office and Secrecy to Narendra Modi and a team of 57 council of ministers at a ceremony.
  
  
• Besides 24 Cabinet ministers including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, and Piyush Goyal, nine were sworn in as Minister of State with Independent charge and another 24 as Minister of State.
  
  
• One-third of the total ministers in the Cabinet are first-timers, including BJP president Amit Shah and former Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
  
  
• Portfolios for the new ministers have not been announced yet.
  
  
• The function was attended by leaders from BIMSTEC countries and foreign envoys.
  
  

About: 

• Present Status: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has established the network of 18 Population Research Centres (PRCs) spread over 17 major States/UTs. 
  
  
• Background: The scheme started with establishment of 2 PRCs at Delhi and Kerala in 1958 and expanded to 18 PRCs with latest inclusion of PRC, Sagar during 1999. Of these, 12 are attached to various Universities and 6 are in research institutions of national repute. 
  
  
• Mandate: Their mandate is to provide critical research based inputs related to the Health and Family Welfare programs and policies at the national and state levels. 
  
  
• Administration: The PRCs are autonomous in nature and administratively under the control of their host University/Institutions. 
  
  

About: 

• Every year, on 31 May, the World Health Organization (WHO) and global partners celebrate World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). 
  
  
• The annual campaign is an opportunity to raise awareness on the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure, and to discourage the use of tobacco in any form. 
  
  
• The focus of World No Tobacco Day 2019 is on "tobacco and lung health." The campaign will increase awareness on - 
  • the negative impact that tobacco has on people’s lung health, from cancer to chronic respiratory disease,
    
    
  • the fundamental role lungs play for the health and well-being of all people.
    
    
  
  
  

About: 

• Official name: Committee on the Development of Housing Finance Securitisation Market.
  
  
• Composition: The six-member panel has been constituted under the chairmanship of Harsh Vardhan, Senior Advisor with Bain & Co.
  
  
• Timeline: The committee shall submit its report by the end of August 2019.
  
  
• Terms of reference:
  • To review the existing state of mortgage backed securitisation in India and suggest measures to deepen it.
    
    
  • To assess the role of various counterparties, including servicers, trustees, rating agencies, in the securitisation process and suggest steps to address the key risks.
    
    
  
  
  

Need of committee:

• The mortgage securitisation market in India is primarily dominated by direct assignments among a limited set of market participants on account of various structural factors impacting both the demand and the supply side, as well as certain prudential, legal, tax and accounting issues.
  
  
• Thus, a careful design of a robust and transparent securitisation framework assumes paramount significance.
  
  

About:

• Official name: Task Force on the Development of Secondary Market for Corporate Loans.
  
  
• Composition: The six-member body is headed by Canara Bank chairman T. N. Manoharan.
  
  
• Terms of Reference: To make recommendations on –
  • required policy/regulatory interventions for facilitating development of secondary market in corporate loans, including loan transaction platform for stressed assets; and
    
    
  • creation of a loan contract registry to remove information asymmetries between buyers and sellers.
    
    
  
  
  
• Timeline: The task force has been asked to submit its report by the end of August 2019.
  
  

Need of task force:

• Secondary loan market in India is largely restricted to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) and ad hoc sale to other lenders, including banks, and no formalised mechanism has been developed to deepen the market.
  
  
• A well-developed secondary market for debt will also aid in the transparent price discovery of the inherent riskiness of the debt being traded.
  
  

Key Highlights of the study: 

• India has 20.6 health workers per 10,000 people. 
  
  
• While it is less than the World health Organisation’s minimum threshold of 22.8, the numbers have increased from 19 health workers per 10000 people in 2012. 
  
  
• The distribution of health workers is uneven between urban and rural areas. Rural areas with nearly 71% of India's population have only 36% of health workers. 
  
  
• Delhi has the highest concentration of health workers followed by Kerala, Punjab, and Haryana.
  
  
• The uneven distribution of health workers is seen in private and public health sector too — more than 80% of doctors and 70% of nurses and midwives are employed in the private sector. 
  
  

About: 

• Background: India for the first time was placed by the US in its currency monitoring list of countries with potentially questionable foreign exchange policies in May 2018 along with five other countries - China, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland.
  
  
• Criteria for inclusion: The US includes major trading partners in its monitoring list if they meet at least two of three criteria –
  • if it has either a significant bilateral trade surplus with the US,
    
    
  • if it has a material current account surplus or
    
    
  • if it is engaged in “persistent one-sided intervention” in the foreign exchange market.
    
    
  
  
  
• Recent decision:
  • India and Switzerland have been removed from the monitoring list in the latest semi-annual report on macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies of major trading partners of the US.
    
    
  • The list now includes other countries like China, Japan and Germany.
    
    
  
  
  
• Reasons for removal:
  • The Trump administration cited certain developments and steps being taken by India which address some of its major concerns.
    
    
  • In both Switzerland and India, there was a notable decline in 2018 in the scale and frequency of foreign exchange purchases.
    
    
  
  
  

Tadvi Bhil: 

• Status: Tadvi Bhil is a tribal community listed under Scheduled Tribes. They are a sub-caste of the larger Bhil community.
  
  
• Distribution: They are found in four Indian states namely Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
  
  
• Language: The Tadvi speak a dialect of their own, also known as Tadvi. Their language is also Dhanka, which belongs to the Bhil group of the Indo-Aryan language family.
  
  

Tadvi Bhil Muslims:

• Those who adopted Islam are known as Tadvi Bhil Muslims.
  
  
• They are unrigid in their practice of Islam. They offer namaz but they also retain many aspects of Hindu culture like wearing a sari, or folding their hands in front of an idol.
  
  
• Social status: Very few in the community are educated. Literacy rates remain low. Payal’s family claims that she was the first woman in their community to become a gynaecologist. The community has poor health outreach.
  
  

About: 

• The song was launched ahead of the World Environment Day (WED) which is celebrated on 5th June every year. This year the theme of Environment Day is Air Pollution. 
  
  
• Union Environment Ministry, in collaboration with Bhamla Foundation, Mumbai, has produced the theme song on the subject. 
  
  
• The video song, with celebrities and influencers, is intended to carry out the message of Air Pollution and urges to take measures to improve the quality of air. 
  
  

About: 

• Around the world hundreds of millions of fans are playing cricket the way they like to – on the beach, in a carpark or gully or their backyard. 
  
  
• So, Criiio is a celebration of all the brilliant and unique ways people play the cricket game which can be played anywhere, by anyone and at any time. 
  
  
• The ICC asked the fans to join the social cricket tribe by sharing pictures and videos of where and how they play cricket across the world using the newly launched hashtag #criiio and visiting the site criiio.com. 
  
  

List of Directions given to government by NGT:

• Ban water purifiers where total dissolved solids (TDS) in water are below 500 mg per litre.
  
  
• Sensitise public about the ill effects of demineralised water.
  
  
• Make it mandatory to recover more than 60 % water wherever Reverse Osmosis (RO) is permitted across the country.
  
  
• Issue directions for directing manufacturers to provide proper labelling on the purifier specifying that the unit should be used if TDS is more than 500 mg per litre.
  
  

About: 

• NHAI FASTag is a ‘bank-neutral’ FASTag i.e. no bank is pre-assigned to the FASTag at the time of purchase by customer from a Point-of-Sale or Online and offers the flexibility to customer to link the FASTag with their existing bank account by using My FASTag Mobile app. 
  
  
• The online NHAI FASTag has been conceived in a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) concept wherein a customer can self-activate it by entering customer and vehicle details in My FASTag mobile app. 
  
  

Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC): 

• Mandate: To advise the Defence Minister and normally through him the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on all military matters which require ministerial consideration. 
  
  
• Composition: 
  • CoSC is composed of: (a) Chief of the Army Staff (COAS); (b) Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS); (c) Chief of the Air Staff (CAS); and (d) Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CIDS) (non-voting member). Scientific Adviser to the Minister of Defence is invited to attend whenever needed. 
    
    
  • Presently, the senior most member of the COSC is appointed its chairperson. 
    
    
  
  
  

Recent Development: 

• Outgoing Chairman of the COSC and Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba handed over the baton of the COSC to Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Birender Singh Dhanoa. 
  
  
• ACM Dhanoa will be the Chairman of COSC with effect from May 31, 2019, consequent to relinquishment of charge by Admiral Sunil Lanba upon superannuation. 
  
  
• Vice Admiral Karambir Singh has been named as the next Navy Chief. However, his appointment has been challenged by Vice Admiral Bimal Verma in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) over being superceded for the top post despite him being the most senior. 
  
  

Background: 

• The quantum of water to be released is in line with the Supreme Court’s order in February, 2018. 
  
  
• The Supreme Court said Karnataka’s share of the water was 284 tmcft, Tamil Nadu’s 404 tmcft, Kerala 30 tmcft and Puducherry 7 tmcft. Besides this, the court reserved 10 tmcft for environmental purposes and four tmc ft for natural flow into the sea. 
  
  
• This is the third meeting of the CWMA since June 2018. 
  
  

Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA): 

• The CWMA, under the Cauvery Water Management Scheme, 2018, was established one June 1, 2018, under Section 6A of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. 
  
  
• Mandate of CWMA: 
  • To give effect to the decision of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal as modified by the Supreme Court vide its Order, dated 16th February, 2018
    
    
  • Storage, apportionment, regulation and control of Cauvery waters, supervision of operation of reservoirs and regulation of water release.
    
    
  
  
  

About:

• Who coined the term: The term ‘Anthropocene’ was coined in 2000 by Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer.
  
  
• Meaning: The term denotes the present geological time interval in which human activity has profoundly altered many conditions and processes on Earth.
  
  
• Features: According to the AWG, the phenomena associated with the Anthropocene include –
  • increase in erosion and sediment transport associated with urbanisation and agriculture,
    
    
  • rapid environmental changes
    
    
  • global dispersion of many new ‘minerals’ and ‘rocks’ including concrete, fly ash and plastics, and the myriad ‘technofossils’ produced from these and other materials.
    
    
  
  
  

Recent decision by Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) and way ahead:

• The vote by AWG signals the end of the Holocene Epoch, which began 11,700 years ago.
  
  
• The focus is now on identifying a golden spike to signal the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch.
  
  
• The AWG plans to submit a formal proposal for the new epoch by 2021 to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, which oversees the official geologic time chart.
  
  
• The final ratification will be made by the executive committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences.
  
  

Key highlights of the discussion paper:

• Definition: Regulatory sandbox would be defined as a live, testing environment where new products, processes, services and business models could be deployed on a limited set of eligible customers for a specified period of time, with certain relaxations in the regulations and guidelines.
  
  
• Objective: The sandbox is intended to serve as a testing ground for new business models and technologies that benefit the investors, Indian markets and the Indian economy at large.
  
  
• Eligibility:
  • To begin with, all market participants that are registered with the SEBI will be eligible to test within the sandbox. At a later stage, SEBI may allow sandbox access to fintech start-ups and other fintech firms as well.
    
    
  • To be eligible to be tested in the sandbox, a solution need to show that it directly benefits the investors and poses no risks to the financial markets among other parameters.
    
    
  
  
  

Key Highlights of the agreement: 

• Location: The ECT is located some 3 km away from the China-backed international financial city, known popularly as “port city”, being built on reclaimed land on Colombo’s sea front. 
  
  
• Ownership: 
  • The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) retains 100% ownership of the East Container Terminal (ECT). 
    
    
  • The Terminal Operations Company, conducting its operations, is jointly owned. Sri Lanka will hold a 51 % stake in the project and the joint venture partners will retain 49%.
    
    
  
  
  
• Cost: The joint initiative is estimated to cost between $500 million and $700 million.
  • Japan is likely to provide a 40-year soft loan with a 0.1 % interest rate.
    
    
  • Details of India’s contribution to the initiative are awaited.
    
    
  
  
  
• Significance of the project for India: Over 70 % of the transhipment business at the strategically located ECT is linked to India.
  
  
• Way Ahead: The specific terms of the agreement to jointly develop the ECT will soon be finalised at a joint working group meeting.
  
  

Recent record: 

• In a study published in the journal Nature, the researchers at the University of Chicago in the US have said that they have broken the record for highest-temperature superconductor. 
  
  
• They studied a class of materials – superconducting hydrides – in which they observed superconductivity at temperatures of about minus 23 degrees Celsius, a jump of about 50 degrees compared to the previous confirmed record. 
  
  
• For this, researchers created one of these materials, called lanthanum superhydrides to test its superconductivity, and determine its structure and composition. 
  
  

Significance: 

• Scientists have previously only been able to create superconducting materials when they are cooled to extremely cold temperatures initially, minus 240 degrees Celsius and more recently about minus 73 degrees Celsius. 
  
  
• Since such cooling is expensive, it has limited their applications in the world at large. 
  
  
• Though the recent superconductivity happened under extremely high pressure, the result still represents a big step towards creating superconductivity at room temperature, the ultimate goal for scientists to be able to use this phenomenon for advanced technologies.  
  
  
• The potential uses for this are vast: electrical wires without diminishing currents, extremely fast supercomputers and efficient magnetic levitation trains. 
  
  

About:

• Date of Observance: Everest Day is celebrated on May 29 every year in memory of the first summit of Mt. Everest by New Zealand's Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzing Norgay Sherpa on the day in 1953, thus becoming the first humans to achieve the feat.
  
  
• Background: Nepal decided to observe the day as International Everest Day since 2008, when the legendary climber Hillary passed away.
  
  
• Regions of celebration: The day is celebrated with memorial events, processions, and special events in Kathmandu and the Everest region.
  
  

About:

• What is it? The RTGS is an online fund transfer system, supported by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which enables money transaction on a real-time basis.
  
  
• Functioning: RTGS is a system of continuous and real-time settlement of fund-transfers, individually on a transaction by transaction basis (without netting).
  • ‘Real Time’ means the processing of instructions at the time they are received.
    
    
  • ‘Gross Settlement’ means that the settlement of funds transfer instructions occurs individually.
    
    
  
  
  
• Limits: The RTGS system is primarily meant for large-value transactions.
  • The minimum amount for the transaction under this system is Rs 2 lakh.
    
    
  • There is no upper limit on the value of funds that can be transferred via the RTGS system.
    
    
  
  
  

Recent decision:

• The recent decision by RBI follows a robust year-on-year increase in the number of transactions by 8 per cent to ₹1,335 crore in March 2019. The aggregate amount of transactions rose 12 per cent year-on-year to ₹1,255.51 crore.
  
  
• New timing will be effective from 1st June.
  
  

About: 

• Objective: The Nine Dots Prize is a prize for creative thinking that tackles contemporary societal issues.
  
  
• Criteria:
  • Entrants are asked to respond to a question in 3,000 words, with the winner receiving US$100,000 to write a short book expanding on their ideas.
    
    
  • All those 18 years of age and over are welcome to enter but responses and the resulting book must be in English.
    
    
  
  
  
• Name: The name of the Prize references the nine dots puzzle – a lateral thinking puzzle which can only be solved by thinking outside the box.
  
  
• Bodies involved: The Prize is sponsored by the Kadas Prize Foundation with support from CRASSH at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Press.
  
  

Key Highlights of the MoU: 

• Under the scheme of National SC-ST Hub being implemented by NSIC on behalf of the Ministry of MSME, it will continue to provide assistance to SC/ST entrepreneurs with the overall objectives to increase their participation in public procurement. 
  
  
• NSIC projects to increase Revenue from Operation to 3100 crore in the year 2019-20. It also projects growth of 32% in Profitability during the year 2019-20. 
  
  

Digital Dilemma:

• In its landmark report, the Oscar Academy’s Science and Technology Council examined ways in which key players in the movie business currently store and access important digital data.
  
  
• Written by Milt Shelton and Andy Maltz, this publication has been translated in many languages the world over.
  
  

Hindi version of Digital Dilemma:

• John Bailey, President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (popularly known as Oscar Academy), e-launched the Hindi translation of "Digital Dilemma", in Delhi.
  
  
• National Film Archive of India (NFAI) had signed an MoU with the Academy to translate the publication into Hindi so that it can benefit various stakeholders in the country.
  
  

Key Findings of WHO study: 

• 35% women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
  
  
• The violence ranges from 23.2% in high-income countries and 24.6% in the WHO Western Pacific region to 37% in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region.
  
  
• Intimate partner violence is the highest at 37.7% in the WHO South-East Asia region (which includes India).
  
  
• 38% of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner.
  
  

Reasons:

• Men are more likely to perpetrate violence if: they have low education, a history of child maltreatment, exposure to domestic violence against their mothers, harmful use of alcohol and a sense of entitlement over women.
  
  
• Women are more likely to experience intimate partner violence if: they have low education, exposure to mothers being abused by a partner, abuse during childhood, and attitudes accepting violence, male privilege and women’s subordinate status.
  
  

Impact:

• Violence against women — particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence — can negatively affect a woman’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health, and may increase the risk of acquiring HIV in some settings.
  
  

Key Findings of the study:

• Rivers worldwide are polluted with antibiotics that exceed environmental safety thresholds by up to 300 times.
  
  
• One or more common antibiotics is found in two-thirds of 711 samples taken from rivers in 72 countries.
  
  
• In dozens of locations, concentrations of the drugs — used to fight off bacterial infection in people and livestock — exceeded safety levels set by the AMR Industry Alliance, a grouping of more than 100 biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
  
  
• Safety limits were most frequently exceeded in Asia and Africa, but samples from Europe and the Americas showed that the problem is global in scope. The countries with the highest levels of antibiotic river pollution were Bangladesh, Kenya, Ghana, Pakistan and Nigeria.
  
  
• Ciprofloxacin, a frontline treatment for intestinal and urinary tract infections, surpassed the industry threshold at 51 of the sites tested.
  
  

About:

• Definition:
  • Burn-out is defined as “a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
    
    
  • It refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.
    
    
  
  
  
• Three dimensions: The syndrome was characterised by three dimensions –
  • Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
    
    
  • Increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
    
    
  • Reduced professional efficacy. 
    
    
  
  
  

Article 243K:  

• Article 243K deals with the Elections to the Panchayats. 
  
  
• It states that The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to the Panchayats shall be vested in a State Election Commission. 
  
  
• It shall consist of a State Election Commissioner to be appointed by the Governor. 
  
  
• Subject to the provisions of any law made by the State Legislature, the conditions of service and tenure of office of the State Election Commissioner shall be such as the Governor may by rule determine. However, 
  • The State Election Commissioner shall not be removed from his office except in like manner and on the like ground as a Judge of a High Court. 
    
    
  • The conditions of service of the State Election Commissioner shall not be varied to his disadvantage after his appointment. 
    
    
  
  
  

About:

• Born on this day in 1883 near Nasik in Maharashtra, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was popularly called Veer Savarkar.
  
  
• Veer Savarkar was a freedom fighter . He called 1857 revolt as the first war of independence.
  
  
• He founded the following Organizations: Abhinav Bharat Society and Free India Society.
  
  
• He was also a member of India House. He was not the founder of Hindu Mahasabha, but he did served as its president.
  
  
• He opposed the Quit India struggle in 1942, calling it a "Quit India but keep your army" movement.
  
  
• Savarkar endorsed the ideal of India as a Hindu Rashtra and is credited with developing the Hindu nationalist political ideology Hindutva.
  
  
• Publications:
  • He wrote the book ”Joseph Mazzini- Biography and Politics.”
    
    
  • He published “The Indian War of Independence” about the Indian rebellion of 1857.
    
    
  
  
  
• The airport at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar's capital has been named Veer Savarkar International Airport.
  
  

'Missing Man' formation: 

• The 'Missing Man' formation is an aerial salute accorded to honour the fallen comrades-in-arms. 
  
  
• This is an Arrow Formation, with a gap between two aircraft in the formation depicting the Missing Man. 
  
  
• It was on this day in 1999 that, Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja VrC (Posthumous) laid down his life during the Kargil conflict. He was at that time the Flight Commander of 17 Squadron. 
  
  

Operation Safed Sagar? 

• Operation Safed Sagar was the code name assigned to the Indian Air Force's role in acting jointly with Ground troops during the Kargil war that was aimed at flushing out troops of the Pakistani Army from vacated Indian Positions in the Kargil sector along the Line of Control. 
  
  
• It was the first large scale use of Airpower in the Jammu and Kashmir region since the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. 
  
  

About: 

• AKASH Mk1S is a surface to air missile which can neutralize advanced aerial targets. 
  
  
• Akash Mk1S is an upgrade of existing AKASH missile with indigenous Seeker. The Akash weapon system has combination of both command guidance and active terminal seeker guidance. 
  
  
• The supersonic missile has a range of around 25 km and up to the altitude of 18,000 metres. 
  
  
• The missile uses high-energy solid propellant for the booster and ramjet-rocket propulsion for the sustainer phase. 
  
  

Background: 

• The medium range multi-target engagement capable missile was developed as part of the Integrated Guided-Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) other than Nag, Agni, Trishul, and Prithvi missiles. 
  
  
• The missile system was formally inducted into the IAF and the Army in 2015. 
  
  
• Several variants of the missile — Akash MK1, Akash-MK2 — with improved accuracy and higher ranges are under development by the DRDO. 
  
  

About: 

• Mandate: The Government of India has constituted the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal to adjudicate whether or not there is sufficient cause for declaring the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as an unlawful association.  
  
  
• Composition: The Tribunal is comprised of sitting Judge of Delhi High Court Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal. 
  
  

Background: 

• Earlier, the Home Ministry had issued a  notification extending ban on  LTTE in India for a further period of five years. The notification said, Government of India under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 declares LTTE as an unlawful association. 
  
  
• LTTE was banned in India after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.  
  
  

About: 

• What is it? It is the United Nations agency for human settlements and sustainable urban development. 
  
  
• Objectives: To promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns & cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. 
  
  
• HQ: Nairobi, Kenya. 
  
  
• Established in: 1978. 
  
  
• Parent agency: It report to the UN General Assembly. It is also a member of the United Nations Development Group.
  
  

About: 

• Full name: The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
  
  
• What is it? BIMSTEC is an international organization involving a group of countries in South Asia and South East Asia.
  
  
• Membership: It comprises seven countries lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
  
  
• Objective:
  • Its primary objective is to improve connectivity between the members through multi-modal transport corridors.
    
    
  • In general, there are ‘14 priority sectors’ which cover almost all areas of cooperation such as energy, handling of refugees, anti-narcotic measures.
    
    
  
  
  
• Evolution:
  • Encouraged by India’s Look East Policy (LEP) and Thailand’s Look West Policy it was Initiated in 1997 as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
    
    
  • With Myanmar joining the grouping as a full member the same year, the ‘BIST-EC’ was renamed as ‘BIMST-EC’.
    
    
  • With Nepal and Bhutan becoming its members in 2004, the grouping was renamed as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).